Pak NA session likely to be called next week: Minister

Pakistan’s caretaker government has submitted a report to the president for convening a session of the newly-elected National Assembly which is likely to be called next week, Law and Information Minister Ali Zafar said Wednesday.

Talking to reporters outside the Supreme Court, Zafar said the National Assembly session is likely to be called between August 12 and 14 with the newly elected Members of National Assembly to take oath, Geo TV reported.

The appointment of the speaker and the deputy speaker of the NA will also take place during the session, he was quoted as saying by the channel.

According to the law, the new session of the NA is supposed to be called before August 15; however, the session cannot be summoned unless a notification has been issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Citing the election commission, Zafar said that the delay in the election results occurred due to the failure of the Results Transmission System (RTS), which an inquiry into the matter would prove.

On August 2, the ECP had written to the Cabinet Division asking it to constitute a committee for probing the election results software malfunction.

The Election Commission Tuesday notified the final results of the elections but withheld results of nine national and 17 provincial assembly seats, stirring a new controversy before the formation of the next government.

Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had won on four out of the nine NA seats where the results have been put on hold. Three of the nine seats had been claimed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and one each by the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Balochistan Awami Party.

The former cricket star was formally nominated as its candidate by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for the slot of prime minister. He is expected to take oath for the post on August 14 or 15.